The NPS has an obligation to make all published educational materials accessible to people of all abilities. We should intentionally design accessible lesson plans from the first stages of planning and development. This way, we can ensure everyone can access our lesson plans. Any lesson plan or activity added to the NPS Educators Portal, regardless of the format, must be Section 508 compliant. This includes any supplemental work that is uploaded.
If your park educational content is not compliant, work with your web author to remove the files and deactivate the asset in the Educators Portal. There are many resources in the Common Learning Portal that you can use to help ensure you are following the law and creating user-friendly educational materials. For example, the Accessibility and Section 508 Working Group offers a space to ask questions and share resources about accessibility and Section 508.
Resources
- InsideNPS Digital Community Digital Accessibility Resources
- Accessibility Program on the CLP
- User Experience Impossible: The Line Between Accessibility and Usability
- Section 508 Compliance for PDFs
- Accessibility: A Quick-Start Guide for Word and Google Documents
Learn more about the other components of the NPS Educators Portal.